Governor Christie: We Have Had Incredible Progress In Reducing Homelessness In This State

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) — Governor Christie: This commitment to developing and using this model of putting all the programs together so that people can really utilize them I think has allowed us to make some really incredible progress in reducing homelessness in this state and giving people the hand up they need to break the cycle that housing instability gets them into, and some of these statistics are really extraordinary and I have to tell you, I was surprised at what an enormous, enormously positive effect this has had in a relatively short period of time.

In 2015, homelessness is now a staggering 41% lower than it was in 2007 in New Jersey, so in eight years we’ve reduced homelessness by 41%. Every one of these people that access this program and the folks that I met today are the beneficiaries of that, and more importantly their children are the beneficiaries of that, and they don’t have those risk factors any longer that go along with chronic homelessness. Just from 2014 to 2015 when this program’s really gotten into gear from the coordinated perspective, homelessness was reduced 14% in that one year, and that’s a really important figure that connects to the interconnectivity of these programs and how important they are. It’s not just about getting stable housing.

It’s about these other services as well that make that stable housing the type of environment where children and their parents can work together to do things the right way, and in the last year, in 2015, the rate of homelessness among families with children declined by 25%, and that’s really important, so in the budget I just proposed a couple months ago we’re also maintaining more than $17 million in state and federal funding for the Division of Family Development’s Social services for the Homeless program. We’re committing an additional $42 million for the State Rental Assistance Program and dedicating more than $14 million for homelessness prevention through emergency shelters throughout the state, and today I’m pleased to take our commitment a step further by announcing the availability of another 500 SRAP vouchers, the State Rental Assistance Program Vouchers. These vouchers will come through an RFP that DCA will be issuing for its new statewide Housing First Initiative, so another 500 of those.

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